Jane Smith* is an all around awesome person!

As crazy as it may seem, all it took was this anonymous compliment from behind the screen of her computer to put a smile on CHS sophomore Jane Smith’s face. And Jane is not the only CHS student smiling.

In the spring of 2013, a Facebook Page called “CHS Admirers” was created by two CHS students. The page encourages students to message a compliment about someone who they admire to be posted anonymously for the CHS student body to see. The identities of the creators of the page, Sam* and Alex* are unknown to the followers of the page.

The idea for the page came to Sam and Alex one lazy day after school.  “I was on Facebook and I saw a page similar to it from one of my friends from another school,” Sam said.  “And I thought ‘Oh, why not make one for our school?’”

After a year receiving hundreds of messages from CHS students, Sam and Alex are impressed with the success of the page. “I think we are kind of surprised how long it’s been going on,” Sam said.  But the longevity of the page is not the only thing that surprised Sam and Alex.

“I’ve been pretty impressed with the variety of kids that have gotten compliments,” Alex said. “It’s not just ‘the popular kids,’ you know?”

Overall, it appears as if the CHS community supports the page and its purpose. “I think it’s a really positive way to spread the love in CHS,” sophomore Sophie Krehmeyer said.

And for the students who receive a compliment from CHS Admirers, they are feeling the love.

Even Sam and Alex feel touched when they are messaged a compliment about themselves. “When people post things about me, I react just like anyone else would,” Sam said. “It’s exciting, you know?”

For the past year the page has been putting smiles on the faces of CHS students, flaunting the kindness found in the Clayton community. But what about the many CHS students who have never seen their name tagged in a CHS Admirers post?

Many CHS students, including the creators of the page, believe that students who have not yet been complimented shouldn’t take it the wrong way.

“Everyone has a chance of getting a CHS Admirers,” Alex said. “And so I feel like people can feel left out, but I think you’ve got to give some to get some. So if they want a CHS Admirers post, then maybe they should start submitting some love.”

Senior Aaron Argyres agreed that not getting a compliment shouldn’t be taken personally. “Not that many people get compliments, so someone shouldn’t be offended just because they’re not getting a compliment,” Argyres said.

Senior Sri Panth also agreed with Argyres, but he believed that not receiving a compliment seemed to be just one of the many problems Panth saw the page to have.

“I disagree with what they are doing,” Panth said. What worried him was the anonymity of the page.

“It’s cool to receive compliments,” Panth said, “but when you don’t know who it’s from it’s kind of wasted.”

Despite these concerns, Alex and Sam believe that the mystery behind the posts is what makes the page attractive to CHS students.

“People wouldn’t want to tell their secrets if they knew that people would find out they said it,” Alex said.

“The part that makes it so unique is that nobody knows who it is,” Alex said.

Beyond just getting to make people feel good, the two creators also admitted there are other benefits of being the masterminds behind the anonymous system.

“We get to like walk down the hall and see people and know that they have a crush on this person. And I could tell them if I wanted to, you know? It’s like you’ve got all of the power,” Alex said. “But of course we would never tell.”

In order to give every student a fair chance at giving a compliment, Alex and Sam post almost every message sent to them, replying with a response similar to “Thank you! We will keep it confidential and post it soon!”

Sam said that they even post the compliments CHS students send about themselves. “I think that like one in 20 people write a post about themselves,” Sam said. “And I don’t want to post it, but I do.”

The only time when a compliment sent is not posted is when it is inappropriate or harmful to someone.

“We just say something like ‘Sorry, we can’t post this,’” Sam said.

Putting the rare occasions of inappropriate messaging aside, CHS Admirers, in general, has had a positive impact on CHS students and is seen by many as a nice change of pace from the cyber bullying that often exists on social networking sites.

“Even though at times high schoolers aren’t brave enough to say a compliment to someone’s face,” Alex said, “I think that it is still really nice that we are spreading the love – even if its behind the screen of a computer.”